Sold by her own mother for fifty thousand dollars, Sloane Mercer should have disappeared before she ever had a chance to live.
Instead, she is rescued by Gideon Rook, the legendary Saint of Cards, who raises her under the protected name Sloane Rook and teaches her the table craft that can either save lives or destroy them. Ten years later, Sloane steps back into Havenport with one purpose: to find the mother who betrayed her and turn the casino's tricks against the casino. Her first clash comes on the street, where she humiliates Ricky Pike and his men with impossible table craft.
From them, she learns that her mother is now Celeste Vane, the feared Ivory Reaper who controls half of Havenport's underground gambling circuit through Blackwell House Casino. When Sloane enters the casino, she sees Earl Dunn and his son Caleb being crushed by a rigged debt. Calm, sharp, and impossible to intimidate, Sloane pays the debt, exposes the trap, and announces that she has come to win the casino itself.
